One way to heal the racial divide is to observe under what conditions racial harmony exists or flourishes. I notice most progress with racism occurs in situations and organizations where people have to work together for their common survival, their common good. Thus, during natural disasters and collective life-threatening crises, people seem to be able …
Physical proximity to one another can provide diverse peoples opportunities for caring relationship. However, without sustained interaction and expression of intimacy among people of different identities, the stage is set for dramas in which hate will be a leading character. Proximity without a process that forms caring relationships is a deadly combination. From “Living Into …
For many years I believed and hoped that altering psychological processes like changing the master status, making people aware of their projections and how they “other” people, would solve the problem with racism. With a growing awareness of how racism operates, for example, Amy Irving suggests in Waking Up White to try to trick the …
Opposing racism but not being active in combatting it sounds rather benign. Forfeiting opportunities to act creatively for race relations may be the greatest contributor to racism’s malignant persistence in society. I believe Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was right when he said: “In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” All of …
Recently my husband and I found ourselves as the only Black couple on a sea and land tour to Alaska and northern Canada. As retirees of the US government and academia respectively, we were quite accustomed to being “the only ones,” meaning being the only people of color in meetings, talks, and conferences. Yet what …
Centuries of racial discrimination and injustice are the foundation upon which current social and economic institutions stand. Education, for example, is touted as a way for persons to participate fully in the American dream of opportunity and resourceful living. Schools, however, report major disparities in the educational achievement of Black and Hispanic students when compared …
Embedded in how American institutions and systems function Read More »
